The imported COVID-19 cases have become the primary source of new infection in China as they accounted for around one third of the daily new cases on Friday, official data suggested Saturday. 

Among the 25 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 reported outside Hubei Province across the Chinese mainland as of Friday, 24 were imported cases and 20 out of them from Iran alone, China’s Health Commission revealed, warning about the rising risks of imported cases from overseas.  

The Chinese mainland reported a total of 99 new cases of the novel coronavirus as of midnight on Friday, with Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak alone, confirming 74 new cases. It means that the 24 imported new cases accounted for around one third of daily new cases in the mainland on that day.    

The three new imported cases reported in Beijing were all from Italy on Friday. Since February 29, the city has reported 11 imported cases. 

Northwest China’s Gansu Province reported 17 new imported cases as of Friday, all from Iran, bringing the total number of imported cases to 28 in the province. No local confirmed cases was found on the same day.

311 people flew commercial flights from Iran to Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu, from Monday to Thursday and were all quarantined. 

According to an official report on Friday, 16 out of 17 confirmed cases outside Hubei were imported ones on Thursday. Such high proportions of imported cases reflect the risk of imported cases is looming large, the National Health Commission of China (NHC) said at a press conference on Friday.

Considering the gravity of the situation, China will continue to deepen international cooperation in epidemic prevention and control, and share information and experience with the WHO and relevant countries in a timely manner, Mi Feng, spokesperson of NHC said.

Global Times